Engaging with Students
For me teaching is first and foremost an exercise in community building that significantly incites students" interests, facilitates productive knowledge exchange, creates collaborative and supportive learning environment, and exposes students to multiple applications of knowledge in real life professional scenarios. To build effective learning communities I create exciting opportunities for industry engagements, provide meaningful research internship placements, take my students to international conferences to present their research as well as engage them as Research Assistants in the international residencies.
International Study Trip to Seoul: Exploring the Power of Korean Wave Industries
The international study trip to Seoul: Exploring the power of Korean Wave industries was designed to expose students to successful arts management strategies applied to the creative industries developments in South Korea, associated with the Korean Wave. This visit was based on the academic and professional networks and developments of the Research Project "Mapping the Global Impact of Hallyu, The Korean Wave." Activities on the tour included attendance of a half-day International Conference "Mapping and Theorizing Hallyu" at the Center for Hallyu Studies at Seoul National University. It also was based on multiple site visits to creative producers in the industry sector (Space Oddity, World K-pop Center, HiKR Ground) and government agencies in Seoul (Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange, Korea Culture Information Service Agency, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cultural Cooperation Division). The tour provided a robust platform to facilitate students' connections and learning to develop their Dissertation projects for the next academic year.
You can read a study trip report prepared by students:
Participating with students in the International Symposium "Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage through Past, Present and Future"
In January 2024, 4 BA Arts Management students, Carla Castle, Lin Sijia Natasha, Natalie Ling Xin Jie and Koh Rui Qi, presented their dissertation research projects at the Plenary Roundtable "Heritage in War and Peace in Asia," at the International Symposium "Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage through Past, Present and Future" at Forlì Campus at the University of Bologna, Italy. The symposium stands as an international platform for profound discussions on the significance of cultural heritage in our lives, with a view to paving the way for comprehensive approaches to heritage protection and promotion. In their presentations, students exposed, shared, and discussed various issues around heritage protection, preservation and promotion in Asia, one of the richest regions in its cultural diversity, with deep historical roots and traditions and a wealth of unique cultural practices with no equivalent worldwide. The research papers focused on the politics of heritage presentation and promotion in the institutionalised traditional context as well as on new technological developments in the digital domain that both threaten and enhance human encounter with heritage, adding more players, avenues, and platforms for heritage preservation.
Participating with students in the Communicating the Arts Conference
10 BA Arts Management Students presented their creative projects in the Keynote Panel "Reimagining Heritage for Digital Natives" at the 2023 Communicating the Arts Conference, a global platform that brought together 150+ art professionals, innovators and change-makers in arts and technology from major cultural institutions and museums from all over the world.
Koh Rui Qi, Koh Min Hui Ally and Carissa Huang presented their Project "Traditional Craft Rangoli for Gen Z" developed in collaboration with the National Heritage Board in 2023. They introduced a mood tracker app.
Ashley Hikari Song, Han Jiwon and Nur Liyana Binte Leman presented their Project "Fabric He(Arts): Promoting Heritage Businesses" developed in collaboration with the National Heritage Board in 2023. They shared an Instagram campaign model devised to promote local textile heritage businesses to young people.
Carla Castle, Ang Shi Hui Angelina, Lim Yan Bing and Lionel Fong Yu Suen presented their Project "Empowering Cultural Preservation: A Holistic XR Solution to Cultural Heritage" designed as a part of their experience of participating in the international ASEAN ROK Contest on metaverse idea development in Busan South Korea, in November 2023.
Participating at the ASEAN-ROK Youth Metaverse Idea Contest
4 BA Arts Management Students Carla Castle, Ang Shi Hui Angelina, Lim Yan Bing and Lionel Fong Yu Suenre presented Singapore and secured 3rd place in the finals of the ASEAN-ROK Youth Metaverse Idea Contest focusing on cultural heritage. The contest was open to teams across ASEAN nations, and challenged participants to come up with proposals that integrated extended reality (XR) technology with cultural heritage and tourism. Following a series of online lectures and activities in August, the LASALLE quartet emerged amongst the top five of the 48 teams who participated, clinching their place in the finals with their idea to use immersive technologies to juxtapose tangible and intangible cultural heritage side by side, so as to showcase the cultures of indigenous communities in their entirety.
Click to Learn MoreThe first time in the history of LASALLE a BA (Hons) Arts Management student receives McNally Award for Excellence in the Arts!
Jordan Tham is the first graduating student in the BA Arts Management Program who, through his example, vividly demonstrates a radical shift currently happening at the arts management field transforming from a mere service industry into a leading creative economy sector. Jordan"s genuine curiosity, resourcefulness, creativity, intelligence, and persistence ensured his exemplary success in conducting his research project for his BA Dissertation. His research meaningfully brought together the world of museums and heritage and technological advancements in Augmented Reality (AR) to propose a new assessment framework to evaluate audiences" AR encounters with heritage. The excellence and novelty of this research was celebrated and acknowledged in Singapore, as well as it garnered recognition from scholars worldwide, earning international acclaim. Starting with his illuminating presentations at the LASALLE's 2023 Trans/Missions Conference, Jordan presented his project at two prestigious international conferences: the 9th Asian Undergraduate Research Symposium organized by The International Academic Forum in Singapore and the 28th International Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies "Synergies in Intercultural Communication: Languages, Professions and Heritages" in Macau, China.
Publishing Edited Collection of the best student research projects.
2023 inaugural edition: The Future of Heritage
Grincheva, N. (ed.) (2023). The Future of Heritage. Pagesetters.
ISBN 9789811873737, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8074105
The Future of Heritage is an inaugural edition of the research collections starting in 2023 to celebrate research achievements of the BA (Honours) Arts Management Programme at the LASALLE, University of the Arts Singapore. The book focuses on the future of heritage. It documents heritage sector developments in Singapore and Asia in a very interesting moment in history: a time of unprecedented technological developments, innovative experimentations, and revolutionary advancements happening right after the global COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The Future of Heritage compiles a diverse kaleidoscope of case studies that discuss current practices of heritage institutions or delve into emergence of new heritage traditions and artistic practices, offering a fresh account of the heritage development trajectory into the future.
Teaching International Arts Entrepreneurship? Pedagogical Implications of Working Across Borders
The presentation given at the 2023 Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education (SAEE) Annual Conference reflects on the experimental project of virtual student exchange developed in 2022 in the framework of the undergraduate course Strategic and Entrepreneurial Thinking for Arts Organisations at the LASALLE, University of the Arts Singapore. Under the pressure of border closures and significantly decreased students" mobility due to the pandemic crisis, the module incorporated a virtual student exchange component to meet its learning outcomes, expectations and objectives. It was redesigned to accommodate international teamwork of students from 4 different countries (Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan) to develop creative start-up business proposals. Through teleconference technologies and integrative curriculum design, the module facilitated international collaboration of students from partner universities, including Hong Kong Baptist University, Kyoto Seika University, and Taipei National University of the Arts.
Participating with students in the 28th International Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies
BA(Hon) Arts Management students Jordan, Kenix and Shalyn had the prestigious opportunity to present their dissertation research at the 28th International Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (ICIAICS) held at City University of Macau. At ICIAICS, the team presented two sessions to over 140 scholars from more than 10 countries and regions. Dr Natalia Grincheva gave a presentation on digital "contact zones" of museum diplomacy together with Shalyn, while Jordan and Kenix presented on emerging technologies in heritage and their impacts. The students" presentations received very positive feedback from the academics in attendance. The team were highly praised for their creative forms of presentation, insightful content and fresh approaches to intercultural communication from the perspective of arts and heritage - an area currently underrepresented amongst the featured research projects and a testimony to the richness of academic scholarship and output from the BA(Hons) Arts Management programme.
Click to Learn MoreIndustry placements for hands-on learning: Collaborations with creative industries in Melbourne
The presentation given at the 2020 AAAE Annual Conference "Vision for Student Success" by Dr Natalia Grincheva and her former MA students: Jean Hair, Jean Yu, Maria Teresa Tavares, Eliza Jane Coyle and Rima Lee.
Students shared their personal learning experiences in several collaborative projects between MA Art Curatorship and MA Art Management programs at the University of Melbourne and local creative industries.
They included (1) 2018-2019 industry placement research internships for graduate students at ACMI X, (2) Industry Engagement Learning Project (IEL) implemented in 2018 as a part of the graduate course AMGT90004 States, Governments and the Arts, and 2019 Accelerator Program at the University of Melbourne in the Melbourne Entrepreneurial Centre, Translating Research at Melbourne (TRaM).
